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Tata Motors stalls as tariffs and slow sales dent Q1 performance
MUMBAI: From roaring engines to grinding gears Tata Motors hit a speed bump in Q1 FY26, with global headwinds and fresh US tariffs putting the brakes on growth. The automaker’s consolidated revenue slid 2.5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.04 lakh crore, while EBITDA screeched down 35.8 per cemnt to Rs 9,700 crore. Pre-tax profit before exceptional items halved to Rs 5,617 crore, as free cash flow reversed into a deep Rs 12,300 crore deficit.
The group’s luxury arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) bore the brunt, posting its 11th straight profitable quarter but feeling the crunch of trade duties and a planned Jaguar wind-down. Revenue skidded 9.2 per cent to 6.6 billion euros, EBITDA margin shrank 650 basis points to 9.3 per cent, and EBIT margin dropped to 4.0 per cent. Profit before tax tumbled 49.4 per cent to 351 million euros, hit by tariffs of up to 27.5 per cent on UK and EU exports to the US though a late-quarter UK-US deal promises relief, slashing rates to 10 per cent from June and a subsequent EU-US pact trimming them to 15 per cent.
Back home, the commercial vehicles division held steadier, with revenue down 4.7 per cent to Rs 17,009 crore but EBITDA margins inching up 60 basis points to 12.2 per cent. Passenger vehicles struggled, with an 8.2 per cent revenue dip to Rs 10,877 crore and EBIT margins reversing to -2.8 per cent.
On a standalone basis, Tata Motors posted revenue of Rs 15,682 crore, down from Rs 16,862 crore last year, but revved up profit after tax to Rs 5,350 crore, powered partly by Rs 4,913 crore in dividends from subsidiaries. Net profit margin stood at 34.1 per cent, while operating margin clocked in at 12.28 per cent.
Despite the slowdown, the group ended the quarter with consolidated liquidity of 5 billion euros, including 1.7 billion euros in undrawn credit lines. But with inventories shifting, costs climbing, and global trade still unpredictable, the road ahead could test Tata’s grip on the wheel.
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Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
